As the economy was in turmoil in the fourth quarter of 2008 and bailouts and loans seemed the only ways to salvage the financial and automotive sectors of the economy,Roofing Contractor and Architectural Roofing & Waterproofingturned to contractors to take the pulse of the roofing industry in an exclusive survey.

As the economy was in turmoil in the fourth quarter of 2008 and bailouts and loans seemed the only ways to salvage the financial and automotive sectors of the economy, Roofing ContractorandArchitectural Roofing & Waterproofingturned to contractors to take the pulse of the roofing industry in an exclusive survey. Tune in this Friday, Jan. 30, 2:00 pm EST to get a sneak peek at the survey results and get some tips on ensuring profitability in a tough economy.

Roofing ContractorandArchitectural Roofing & Waterproofingmagazines partnered with Clear Seas Research to conduct a research study to gauge roofing contractors’ sense of the commercial and residential roofing market. The survey was sponsored by GAF Materials Corporation. We also wanted to see how contractors expected the market to react over the next 12 months and the next three years.

We’ll present key findings on expected sales volumes for 2009 and the next three years at the seminar, but there’s a wealth of data in the survey that should prove interesting.

In the midst of economic uncertainty, how do the contractors participating in our survey expect to weather the storm, build their businesses and even increase revenue? One way is by investing in employee training. Nearly all of the roofing contractors surveyed (some 95 percent) offer training opportunities to their employees, averaging 44 hours per person annually for training.

It seems a safe bet that some of that training will be in Spanish. Two-thirds of roof contracting companies surveyed have employees who speak Spanish, and Spanish-speaking roofing contractors comprise roughly 24 percent of the workforce.

To register for the webinar, please go to:w.on24.com/r.htm?e=126504&s=1&k=DB1A83EE9054A4EEB49CF779A241B3F9&partnerref=blog

 Tune in on Friday for our webinar to get some other key data on the market. We’ll also have an article summarizing the survey results in our February issue. The State of the Industry Study was conducted by Clear Seas Research, a division of BNP Media, which is also the parent company of Roofing Contractormagazine. For more information about this study or to find out more about Clear Seas Research services, please contact Sarah Turner atturners@clearseasresearchor visitwww.clearseasresearch.com.